Love and Loyalty
by buttercups3
Summary: A conversation about love and loyalty between my favorite ship: Miles x Nora. Takes place early on in the episode "Kashmir." Pure, plotless fluff. One-shot.


_Just a silly one-shot featuring my fave couple (Miles-Nora). Spoilers for Episode 9: "Kashmir." Takes place right after Miles's and Charlie's conversation in the second scene of the episode. Nora's p.o.v. Rated T for sexiness and sailorly swearing...just like every time. ;)_

Nora smiled at Miles as he sauntered in her direction, bottle of unidentifiable booze clutched in a hand calloused by a decade of sword fighting. From a distance, she had seen him briefly talk to Charlie and had possibly even detected laughter – the first she had heard out of Miles since his surprise "liberation" of her from the chain gang.

Tomorrow they took on Philly with the piddling group of rebels who'd agreed to accompany them. They faced insurmountable odds. Given the circumstances, she decided to entice Miles into a dark alley with the intention of having her way with him. Miles followed her until they were alone in the quiet, abandoned space between two overgrown buildings.

"If you're planning on mugging me, then all's I got's this bottle. I'm also heavily armed," Miles slurred, gesturing toward his swords.

He'd had a bit too much, but she couldn't blame him. Drinking was Miles's way of coping. He'd justifiably had a rough day, being tortured and all. In fact, it was a miracle the rebels had let him live.

"I fight even better drunk," Miles assured her and leaned genteelly against the wall on his arm.

Nora leaned her own back against the cold concrete and smiled sidewise at him. "Relax. I don't want your booze."

Miles looked a little disappointed. "Oh."

Nora snickered. "You had a bit of a heart-to-heart with Charlie, huh?"

Miles shook his head, instantly serious. "That kid, Nora. She worries me. It's like she thinks I'm invincible, and…you know, the troops used to pass around those bullshit stories about me walking through fire and taking twenty holes in my chest without going down."

"So? People like to believe in you, Miles. And you _are_ kind of a lucky son of a bitch." Nora saw his jaw twitch. "What's bothering you?"

"It's just…" Miles took another swig from the green bottle. "You don't go into battle thinking you'll come out, or you get scared. You get incapacitated by fear. No, you go in knowing that you're already dead. It's the only way."

Nora sighed. "It's not the _only_ way. It's ok to care – to want to make it out. You don't have to say goodbye to everyone every time."

"Yes, you do! If I start believing that I'm somehow…I dunno, charmed or something, then I'm fucked. I'm not even that good anymore, Nora - I've gotten old."

She rolled her eyes. "You're still pretty damn good for forty-six, Miles."

"Not against kids, I'm not. That…Nate – he got away from me. I wasn't fast enough. Before that, he could have killed any one of us in our sleep if he'd wanted to. And things have changed with the militia now – I don't know what to expect. We used to obey the rules of civilized warfare, but now…what Jeremy said? They're not even sparing officers anymore. Strausser's been promoted…"

"Miles…" Nora took away his bottle and put it on the ground. She folded her arms. "You've been having a lot of…_feelings_ since Charlie came back into your life."

Miles grunted in objection and crossed his own arms defensively.

Nora continued: "I get it. The rules of the game have changed for you. You're no longer the author of what the militia does, and on top of it, now you've _really_ got something to lose."

"I've always had something to lose." Passion crept into Miles's voice, and Nora could tell he meant her.

"Not like this. I appreciate you saying that, Miles, but not like this. I could always take care of myself – Charlie is totally relying on you. Not that she's not strong; she is. But in a way, she's still like a child. She needs you. It's scary for you to be needed like that."

"Hm," Miles made a sound that sounded almost like a laugh. He scratched his dark hair, flecked at the temples with silver.

"What?" Nora asked, the corners of her lips turning up.

"Just something Bass always said about me."

Nora's mouth fell into a frown. Not a good time to reminisce about their old friendship. Not when Miles was going to have to muster the will to kill Bass when he'd failed before.

But Miles was continuing: "Bass always accused me of being a big sap under the stony exterior, because, you know, the people I love, I love forever. He said I never got over anybody."

Nora cocked her head at him.

Miles appeared to be brimming with conversation - a side effect of the booze, perhaps. "But Bass was full of shit," Miles scoffed. "I've never really gotten love. What does that mean anyway? No, what I'm a sucker for, and always have been, is loyalty. So are you, Clayton. You've got the same disease. That's why you're here, right? I mean, you don't owe me anything; you've stuck your neck out for me a thousand times, put up with my infernal shit. We both know you agreed to come because you're stupidly loyal to me, same as I am to you. We're loyal sons of bitches long, long after we should be."

Nora chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we are." She played with a button on her shirt.

"So's Mia."

"Miles…" Nora warned, forbiddingly. She was not prepared to go there – not now. If they survived Philly, which was highly unlikely, then maybe she'd try to process what had happened with her sister.

"Don't blame Mia for being stupidly loyal to you. She was rightfully pissed at me, and just wanted to get you two out alive. She has a right to save her sister."

"Jesus, Miles. You don't talk much, but when you do, it's really, really irritating," Nora complained, drawing Miles's large body around her and gazing up into his grizzled face.

Miles stared seriously down at her, returning her embrace. "I don't want you to have regrets when you die."

"Oh, thanks. So I'm already dead?" Nora cocked an eyebrow.

"You know what I mean," Miles said softly, his lips close to hers now.

"So…you still loyal to Bass?" Nora whispered.

Miles swallowed. "I'm loyal to this…whatever we are. Charlie, you, and even goddamned Aaron. Stupid fucker. I don't know when it happened, but I'd die for his fat ass, same as yours." Miles ran his hand down Nora's spine, spreading a pleasant warmth into her legs.

"And are you still loyal to Bass?" Nora asked again.

Miles's body tensed, and she thought he was going to push her away. But astonishingly, he had changed. He exhaled and leaned his cheek on the top of her head. She thought she felt him shake his head.

"Want you," Miles mumbled. And they were back to sex. "May be our last chance."

"Why do you think I lured you into this dark alley in the first place?" Nora smiled, allowing Miles to drop the subject. Hell, they'd find out soon enough the answer to her question and probably many more. And then they'd most likely die, like Miles said.

"Fair warning: I'm rank," Miles informed. "That disgusting bathtub gin didn't help."

Nora snorted, "I doubt I'll be able to discern your stench from mine."

"Nah, lady filth is never so bad as dude's. Just the way it is."

"Wise words from…" Nora was going to say _the general_, but she stopped herself: "the Matheson patriarch." That probably wasn't the best thing to say either, given Miles's older brother's recent demise.

Again Miles surprised Nora by brushing aside a potentially volatile subject in favor of intimacy. He pushed her gently into the wall and began kissing her neck. "I think we've done enough talking for one night," he muttered, tingling her ear and causing her to giggle giddily.

Nora liked that Miles perceived them as similar people - despite his flaws, she admired him a whole hell of a lot. But she was also grateful that he was wrong on one point. Nora did understand the difference between love and loyalty. As Miles's lips met hers, she gave herself entirely over to the former.


End file.
